2014 Silverado transmission flush or drain?

[Rkaroll953]

I did this on my old truck, 6L80E. would never do it again i will just pay the dealer, no matter how long you let it drain, once you take the pan off its still all gonna drip in your face, all over the floor. cleaning took longer than the filter change. I have also heard way to many horror stories about the trans flush machine. id say get the filter changed and the 6-7 quarts done more frequently than a flush. i plan on changing my filter at 30k and then every 30k after that. gotta take care of the trans in these trucks, unfortunetly they seem like the weak link

[GMcD]

Just a quick update. I went ahead and got the flush done today. The transmission seems MUCH happier. Shifts seem more snappy and it just feels overall better. If something changes ill update this thread. Thanks to all who replied.

[Perseus]

How much does GM get for the flush

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[GMcD]

My dealer charged $195

[wmgeorge64]

I was told on my 2006 the flush is all they do at the dealership unless the truck has been used for heavy duty towing then they do the filter also.

 

[Grumpy Bear]

The math of the trans fluid change:

Your 6L80E holds, for sake of argument, 12 quarts. I want to fully replace all the fluid in the transmission. I have three options.

 

1.)  Remove the gearbox, disassemble as much as need to fully drain the box/converter and replace with fresh fluid. 12 quarts.

 

2.)  Do a service fill which is remove the pan, change the filter and refill. This takes 6 quarts but leaves 50% of the original fluid. If I repeat this process four times with mixing (drive time) between dump and fills it takes four six quart changes to displace 93.75%% of all the original fluid. 24 quarts.

 

3.) Power flush. While this sounds like a good idea to get to the same 6.25% contamination level of method 2 I would need to flush 192 quarts or 48 gallons or roughly a drum of fluid through the system and that is if I could assure good agitation during the process. An 18 quart power flush leaves 65% of the old fluid in the box.

 

The number of service fills below will give these percentages of fresh to foul fluid. Run the truck a day or so between services and the filter needs to be changed but once. In fact if you have a pump you can do this at home via the dip stick. 

 

1 = 50% / 50%

2 = 75% / 25%

3 = 87.5% / 12.5%

4 = 93.75% / 6.25%

5 = 96.88% / 3.12%

6 = 98.44% / 1.56%

7 = 99.22 % / 0.78%

8 = 99.61% / 0.39%

9 = 99.81% / 0.19

10 = 99.91% / 0.09%

[swathdiver]

I'm not sure how you're figuring this out mister but that seems overly complex.  I've seen fellas drop two lines, one in each buck, and fire the motor.  One fills up with old fluid, the other sucks up the 12 quarts and when the former bucket starts getting red fluid instead of brown, shut the motor off, re-connect the lines and top it off proper and you're done.

 

Any fluid remaining in the valve body would be inconsequential and not hurting anything as it will surely be dissolved into the new when the appropriate function dislodges it.

 

 

[Grumpy Bear]

9 hours ago, swathdiver said:

I'm not sure how you're figuring this out mister but that seems overly complex.  I've seen fellas drop two lines, one in each buck, and fire the motor.  One fills up with old fluid, the other sucks up the 12 quarts and when the former bucket starts getting red fluid instead of brown, shut the motor off, re-connect the lines and top it off proper and you're done.

 

Any fluid remaining in the valve body would be inconsequential and not hurting anything as it will surely be dissolved into the new when the appropriate function dislodges it.

 

 

integration is the short answer. Longer answer....

 

Try this. Put a eight ounce glass of milk in a sink. Above it one of those 5 gallon water bottles with a valve and start draining the bottle into the glass allowing the glass to over flow. Keep track of how much water it takes to make the glass clear again. When you done with that think how convoluted the interior of a transmission compared to the simple shape of a cylinder. In the laboratory you would use an 'opacity' meter to quantify the degree of cleanliness and not your eye which will lie to you. 

 

Next fill that glass with milk and dump it out. Fill it with water and dump it out. Over 90%. Repeat two more times and it will be 97% clear. This would simulate an overhaul fill. They taught you this in chemistry labs. 

 

Repeat that process with only removing 1/2 of the liquid each time. You'll get the point the math is supplied in the post. They taught you this in middle school math. 

 

The type of process the power or pump flush is trying to simulate is something similar to what the oil industry does to pipelines when flushing large transmission lines between liquid types. But most either don't know or don't remember they do this with a device called a 'pig' or a plug that fully displaces the lines volume in one sweep. Why? Refer the running water in a milk glass paragraph. A 24" pipeline is a much simpler shape than a gear box. 

 

Power flushing a brake system is a bit different due to line size and capillary action. Assuming you suck out the reservoir and refill three times before attaching the power head. Biology would have hinted at this. 

 

What your observing is an illusion of clean without actually being clean. That said accepting it is a whole different thing. It's your gear box. Do as you please. 

[swathdiver]

Well then it looks like you know more than I on this subject.  My memory has long since forgotten such schoolin' as you mention, if I ever was schooled that way to begin with.  

 

As for me and my truck, maybe next time I'll drop the pan and do it old school, if physically unable to again, it goes back to the dealer and to the Trans Flow machine.

[Grumpy Bear]

4 hours ago, swathdiver said:

Well then it looks like you know more than I on this subject.  My memory has long since forgotten such schoolin' as you mention, if I ever was schooled that way to begin with.  

 

As for me and my truck, maybe next time I'll drop the pan and do it old school, if physically unable to again, it goes back to the dealer and to the Trans Flow machine.

Dad has this pump he worked up to draw it from the dipstick tube. A metered 6 quarts. He's 89 and likely in better shape than I am. What most I know I learned from him. The milk trick is just fun to do. Try it. 

[Zirdam1]

For those of us that just bought a used Silverado, I have a 2014 5.3L LTZ. I want to share the dealership costs with everyone. I had the transmission fluid and filter service done. I was charged $350.05. $132.12 in parts and $217.93 in labor. I was going to do it myself but I decided to be lazy and pay, I just dont have the time these days.  I have no issues on my transmission at all, just bought the truck with 68k miles and now its at 75k. Never know if the other owner treated it like I do. I live in Montana. 

[Doublebase]

Well, i dropped my pan and changed the filter at 40,000 miles...cleaned the magnet. To my surprise the thing actually seems to be shifting a little smoother now (probably my imagination). I'll just do simple drain and fills from here on out, once a year or so.

 

Magnet was fairly "clean", filter looked "good". If you ever change your filter, do yourself a favor...leave the little filter gasket in the transmission and don't try to replace it...it's a royal pain to get the old one out.   

[Outdoor 74]

New to the forum.  I have a 2015 GMC Sierra 1500 SLT 4WD 5.3L Gas engine with the 6 speed auto.  Just recently had the transmission fluid exchange (flush) done at my dealership, with ~ 51,000 miles on it.  So far I noticed much smoother shifts and quiter all around.  You can see the total cost was $252.50 (I live in CaliPOORnia and do not have the means to do a fluid change myself).  When I asked what this entails he said it completely exchanges out the old transmission fluid replacing it with new fluid, including what is in the torque converter.  He then said at ~100,000 miles they can do a fluid change, including the transmission filter.  However, I noticed one of the line items in the details is '1 6600 ATF Kit'.  When searching this nothing definitive comes up, but seems it could be a cleaning agent they use.  Thoughts?  Anyhow, as mentioned earlier so far so good using the flush.  From what I gather doing the flush with relatively low miles, like on my truck, is okay, just don't want to do it with higher mileage, since can push dirt and debris that have accumalated over time into places where it shouldn't be.  It's my opinion doing regular fluid changes will be beneficial in the long run, despite the manual saying can go to 150,000 for non-severe duty, which I think they say so people think they will save $$ by waiting that long, but seems that would be asking for trouble, and better to do more frequently.

[Black02Silverado]

36 minutes ago, Outdoor 74 said:

New to the forum.  I have a 2015 GMC Sierra 1500 SLT 4WD 5.3L Gas engine with the 6 speed auto.  Just recently had the transmission fluid exchange (flush) done at my dealership, with ~ 51,000 miles on it.  So far I noticed much smoother shifts and quiter all around.  You can see the total cost was $252.50 (I live in CaliPOORnia and do not have the means to do a fluid change myself).  When I asked what this entails he said it completely exchanges out the old transmission fluid replacing it with new fluid, including what is in the torque converter.  He then said at ~100,000 miles they can do a fluid change, including the transmission filter.  However, I noticed one of the line items in the details is '1 6600 ATF Kit'.  When searching this nothing definitive comes up, but seems it could be a cleaning agent they use.  Thoughts?  Anyhow, as mentioned earlier so far so good using the flush.  From what I gather doing the flush with relatively low miles, like on my truck, is okay, just don't want to do it with higher mileage, since can push dirt and debris that have accumalated over time into places where it shouldn't be.  It's my opinion doing regular fluid changes will be beneficial in the long run, despite the manual saying can go to 150,000 for non-severe duty, which I think they say so people think they will save $$ by waiting that long, but seems that would be asking for trouble, and better to do more frequently.

Here in N.C. I had the transmission on our 2016 Suburban's fluid exchanged.  No pan drop, just fluid exchange.  I provided the AMSOIL fluid and they did the work.  Cost me $100. 

[Outdoor 74]

4 hours ago, Black02Silverado said:

Here in N.C. I had the transmission on our 2016 Suburban's fluid exchanged.  No pan drop, just fluid exchange.  I provided the AMSOIL fluid and they did the work.  Cost me $100. 

That's a great price, wish I could get that deal where I live.  Have any issues arisen since the exchange?  I've only put about 100 miles since I had mine done but so far so good.